Mortal verdict
294:9 The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This mortal belief, misnamed _man_, is error, saying: 294:12 "Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man."
294:15 This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology, to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed 294:18 by Truth through spiritual sense and Science.
Mythical pleasure
The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre- senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that 294:21 life and intelligence are in matter, show the pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in 294:24 which matter is represented as divided into intelligent G.o.ds.
Man"s genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by 294:27 mortals. G.o.d created man.
The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica- tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal- 294:30 ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon- strates the falsity of error.
Severed members
295:1 The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca- tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which 295:3 are no longer there, is an added proof of the un- reliability of physical testimony.
Mortals unlike immortals
G.o.d creates and governs the universe, including man.
295:6 The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them. Mortal mind would trans- 295:9 form the spiritual into the material, and then recover man"s original self in order to escape from the mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals, 295:12 created in G.o.d"s own image; but infinite Spirit being all, mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and 295:15 forever intact, will appear.
Goodness transparent
The manifestation of G.o.d through mortals is as light pa.s.sing through the window-pane. The light and the 295:18 gla.s.s never mingle, but as matter, the gla.s.s is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that 295:21 one which has lost much materiality - much error - in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides 295:24 the sun.
Brainology a myth
All that is called mortal thought is made up of error.
The theoretical mind is matter, named _brain_, or _mate_- 295:27 _rial consciousness_, the exact opposite of real Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that mortals are created to suffer and die. It further 295:30 teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the- orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat- 296:1 ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual, 296:3 eternal reflection of G.o.d.
Scientific purgation
Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for 296:6 the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf- fering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense 296:9 and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off.
Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic 296:12 matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.
The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish, 296:15 and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with 296:18 them.
Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de- 296:21 pends upon the tenacity of error.
Mixed testimony
The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit 296:24 and matter, Truth and error, seems to com- mingle, it rests upon foundations which time is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony 296:27 of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error, and aids in taking the next step and in understanding 296:30 the situation in Christian Science.
Belief an autocrat
Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they 297:1 think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!"
297:3 and mortals are so; and no circ.u.mstance can alter the situation, until the belief on this sub- ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are 297:6 sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into 297:9 the understanding of what const.i.tutes health; for a change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition.
Self-improvement
297:12 Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real to this false belief, and the human conscious- 297:15 ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being is attained and man found to be immortal. The only fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither 297:18 scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis- solution.
Faith higher than belief
Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is 297:21 a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate- rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the 297:24 ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a 297:27 belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under- 297:30 standing, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine.
A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness, 298:1 sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu- sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine 298:3 Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the 298:6 voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de- stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition.
Truth"s witness
What is termed material sense can report only a mor- 298:9 tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can bear witness only to Truth. To material sense, the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected 298:12 by Christian Science.
Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in- volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real- 298:15 ity. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never 298:18 reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal.
When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spirit- 298:21 ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle, and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead up to their divine origin, G.o.d, and to the spiritual sense 298:24 of being.
Thought-angels
Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial 298:27 visitants, flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from G.o.d, winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi- 298:30 vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels its own forms of thought, marked with superst.i.tious out- lines, making them human creatures with suggestive 299:1 feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more reality than has the sculptor"s thought when he carves 299:3 his "Statue of Liberty," which embodies his concep- tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has no physical antecedent reality save in the artist"s own ob- 299:6 servation and "chambers of imagery."
Our Angelic messengers
My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried 299:9 its fondest earthly hopes. With white fin- gers they point upward to a new and glo- rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels 299:12 are G.o.d"s representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi- 299:15 viduality, image, or likeness of G.o.d, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain "angels unawares."
Knowledge and Truth
299:18 Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then 299:21 to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be untrue and dangerous, since "the tree is known by his fruit"?
299:24 Truth never destroys G.o.d"s idea. Truth is spiritual, eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflec- tion. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth, 299:27 health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth, will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial 299:30 peaks.
Old and new man
If man were solely a creature of the material senses, he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable 300:1 and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from 300:3 matter. Finite sense has no true apprecia- tion of infinite Principle, G.o.d, or of His infi- nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes 300:6 trees and cities seem to be where they are not, ill.u.s.trates the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image of G.o.d.
300:9 So far as the scientific statement as to man is under- stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true reflection of G.o.d - the real man, or the _new_ man (as 300:12 St. Paul has it).
The tares and wheat
The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the im- 300:15 mutable and perfect. The inharmonious and self-destructive never touch the harmonious and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares 300:18 and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Sci- ence separates the wheat from the tares, through the real- 300:21 ization of G.o.d as ever present and of man as reflecting the divine likeness.
The divine reflection
Spirit is G.o.d, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. If 300:24 Spirit were in matter, G.o.d would have no representative, and matter would be identical with G.o.d.
The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, in- 300:27 habits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the di- vine substance or Mind; therefore G.o.d is seen only in the 300:30 spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in the ray of light which goes out from it. G.o.d is re- vealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, - 301:1 yea, which manifests G.o.d"s attributes and power, even as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats 301:3 the color, form, and action of the person in front of the mirror.
Few persons comprehend what Christian Science 301:6 means by the word _reflection._ To himself, mortal and material man seems to be substance, but his sense of substance involves error and therefore is material, 301:9 temporal.
On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, 301:12 which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which const.i.tutes the only real and eternal ent.i.ty. This reflection seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual 301:15 man"s substantiality transcends mortal vision and is re- vealed only through divine Science.
Inverted images and ideas